Boarding House
by TheNewIdea
Summary: Perry is simply trying to deal with life, it doesn't help that he hears voices and it doesn't help that he has no one to comfort him in times of need. It doesn't help that he wound in a boarding house in a small Minnesota town and it doesn't help that everything that he knew is either gone or miles away. But still, life continues on.


The room is dark; a subtle grey hue fills the air as the day turns to the twilight hour. The only light in the room comes from a lone fireplace on the back wall, its glow is also subtle, like the grey, it is a fiery orange. Behind this room is a luxurious dining room with a long table and several chairs, above the table is a chandelier. In the room adjacent to the dining room is the drawing room, which had another couch, a grand piano, an easel and a bay window that looked out into a small garden at the front of the building.

The couch in front of the fireplace is green, its mattresses worn and having seen better days. The only reason that the couch was in the room at all was because the owners of the house were too lazy to throw it away. But for our purposes, we will say that the couch too had a certain air about it. It was comfortable, a welcoming thing, which made the couch have a sense of being.

Sitting on this couch was Perry the Platypus. His eyes were tired, bloodshot red from lack of sleep. His arms hung at his sides in defeat and his legs sprawled out equally exhausted. Perry's tail was curled up, trying to keep itself warm despite the fact that the fire in the fireplace was working diligently to bring warmth and light to the room. Perry's watch ticked the minutes and the seconds away as if it were hurried to get on with the night and into the next morning.

Perry had been working nonstop for three whole days; it had gotten to a point where the platypus was hallucinating-seeing things that weren't there, voices that didn't speak to him and safety where danger was present. The only thing that Perry wanted to do now was sleep, he didn't care if his superiors had a job for him, for if he took it there was no way, physically or mentally, that he would be able to do it. For his own health, Perry took the next week off from work, in an effort to regain his strength and possibly his sanity.

To the right of the fireplace was a staircase. This staircase headed up to the second floor of the house. The second floor of the house, which shared the same grey atmosphere of the living room on the first, was a long hallway that had several rooms. All of these rooms were on the right side. The hallway made a right turn about twenty feet down and then a sharp right to the longer section of the hallway, which had several doors, also rooms, all of them on the left side of the hallway.

At the moment, most of these residents were asleep, for unlike Perry, they did not have jobs that required them, quite literally, to break their backs almost every single day.

Instead these residents did various odd jobs or had their own businesses. Mr. Crinkle, an old African American of the civil rights movement of the 1960's, taught at the local high school as a history teacher. Mrs. Wellington, widow of the late Mr. Edgar Wellington, a wealthy business, was the landlady of the house.

Perry was a criminal defense lawyer. He was currently working on a particular case involving the murder of an 18 year old boy; the boy was one of his old friends from Danville, a place he hadn't been to going on five years, the murderer was a local criminal. He was close to dropping the case, for he was defending the man who had committed the murder and was trying to get it appealed to someone else. Perry was also at the point of quitting the lawyer business and go into his dream profession of becoming a musician.

The reason that Perry was so exhausted was mostly the result of psychological stress, for he had only discovered who the victim in the case was three days ago and was taking it rather hard. The calm fire of the fireplace did its best to soothe the platypus, by burning a bit brighter, this ultimately did nothing for Perry remained exactly the same-everything from position to the stillness of his eyes was frozen in time as if he were made of stone. The grey slowly turned to black as the night drew on, it was now 10:30.

The clock struck as soon as the half hour hit, bringing Perry out of his half comatose state, for the first time all night, Perry spoke.

"Alright already" he said to them, talking to the fireplace, the couch and the clock, the voices of which he heard almost every time he entered the room, "I'll go to bed. Leave me alone."

The clock stared at Perry and asked him why he was always alone, the couch wondered why Perry was in the boarding house at all and the fire only smiled encouragingly, wanting only that Perry get the sleep that he needed.

"Stop it" Perry exclaimed, "I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy." Perry looked accusingly at the couch and the clock and walked upstairs to his room.

Perry's room was around the corner, the third door, in between Mrs. Wellington and Johnny, a construction worker who was the closest thing that Perry had to someone who understood his pain in terms of the physical sense. Perry had worked for Johnny at one time, in order to work his way through law school when he actually had aspirations of going into practice. Perry pulled out his key and fumbled with it for several seconds before finally opening the door and walking inside.

The room, like the rest of the house, was dark. Immediately next to the door was a small desk that Perry retrieved from his old house in Danville from Candace's room. The desk came with a mirror. Across from the desk was Perry's coat rack, which belonged to Lawrence at one time. To the left in the corner of the room was the bathroom. To the right of the bathroom were a full sized bed and a bed side table. On the opposite wall of the door was a window, which looked out to the street of the small Minnesota town. Opposite the bed were an uncomfortable kitchen chair and a small TV from the early 1990's.

Perry trudged over to the bed, which upon Perry's falling into it began talking to the platypus as if he were a long lost friend.

"Shut up" Perry mumbled, too tired to want to have a conversation with it.

The bed was persistent that Perry talk, creaking and moaning, its own way of begging. Perry in response groaned and looked over on the bed side table, which sat a prescription bottle of Risperdal which smiled at him and said nothing. Perry shook his head in denial.

"No" he declared, "I won't do it. It hurts!"

The bottle only smiled bigger, causing Perry to cave and open the bottle and pop two pills dry into his mouth, before the lying back on the pillow a few moments in a cloudy haze. The voices, in time, subsided, finally bringing Perry the peace and quiet he desperately needed.

The darkness of the room faded away with the coming of the morning, bringing about a yellow urine color as light came through the curtains, which Perry had unbeknownst to himself, in a sleepwalking episode later that night, had drawn. Perry woke up with a massive migraine and an aching back, a knock at his door sent him out of bed.

At the door was Mrs. Wellington, she was carrying a basket of bread and cheese along with a small assortment of flowers and chocolates.

"Happy Valentine's Day" Mrs. Wellington said excitedly, "I hope you like it, we singles have to stick together!"

"Is it Valentine's Day?" Perry asked as he yawned, "I must've forgotten it."

Mrs. Wellington nodded in understanding, for the moment expecting the fact that not everyone was as excited about the things that she was excited about, especially early in the morning.

"It's an easy one to forget" Wellington continued, "But it's forgivable, no harm done."

"Well Happy Valentine's Day Mrs. Wellington" Perry answered trying to put on the best smile he could, "Let hope it's a good one."

Mrs. Wellington was 38 but still very attractive, especially for being a widow. She still had the spark of youthfulness that Perry liked. Even so, Mrs. Wellington wasn't exactly Perry's type, but he supposed if ever such a relationship developed he would get used to someone like her.

The voices came back again. The bed began whistling, as if it were telling Perry to go for Wellington right on to the spot, the desk told Perry to simply admit his feelings and the coat rack told him the exact opposite. Perry was not a conversationalist and he also wasn't good with women. Even back in Danville he had trouble getting dates; the only official one he had was forced upon by Heinz Doofenshrimtz with his daughter Vanessa in an effort to deter her from Monty Monogram. Perry ignored them all, smiled, shook Wellington's hand and closed the door.

Just as Perry was about to get back in bed, a second knock came at the door. Perry groaned, walked over and opened the door. This time it was Mr. Crinkle.

"How are we doing this morning?" Crinkle asked with concern

"Fine sir" Perry answered respectfully

"Really?" Crinkle continued, "Cause you look like you got ran over with a steamroller."

Perry nodded and stepped out into the hallway, not bothering to close his door, as far as anything in that room was concerned, if someone wanted it, they could have it.

"Wanna join me for breakfast?" Crinkle offered, "I personally think its shit, but you know what they about shitty food."

"That's its always better when in good company?" Perry said, finishing Crinkle's sentence, causing Crinkle to nod.

"Exactly boy" Crinkle replied, "Now come on, better get going before they get wise."

Perry once again found himself sitting on the green couch, Crinkle sat next to him. Johnny was at the dining table reading a newspaper and enjoying a cup of coffee before work. Wellington arrived with a tray with two plates of food; the breakfast for that morning was an orange slice, a piece of buttered toast, eggs and a choice of coffee or tea. Perry had coffee, Crinkle had tea. As Wellington walked away Crinkle nudged Perry playfully.

"She likes you" Crinkle said with a knowing grin.

"Yeah" Perry said a little dismissive, "How can you tell?"

Crinkle huffed, he couldn't believe that Perry didn't figure it out on his own, in reality Perry had, he knew exactly why Wellington liked him in the ways that Crinkle was suggesting he just wanted Crinkle's view on the issue.

"The way she looks at you for one thing" Crinkle began, "Sizing you up, as they say. Did you notice she gets a twinkle in her eye every time she looks at you?"

Perry nodded, "I have" he answered

"Well what do you think?" Crinkle pressed

"Honestly I don't" Perry replied as he took a drink of his coffee, "It's unethical Crinkle, me being what I am. Besides I don't even see her that way...at least not to that extreme."

Crinkle patted Perry's back as if he were one of his students and stood up.

"You should give it a go" Crinkle advised, "You never know what you might find."

Crinkle walked away to prepare for his class later that day. Johnny folded up his newspaper, finished his coffee and headed towards the door on his way to work. Perry sighed deeply and pulled out his dusty fedora, his red clip-on tie and the case file of the current case he was working on.

Perry's client was a known sex offender named Julius Morrison, who had allegations of murder against him for forty years or more, but lack of evidence, expired warrants and the Julius' knowledge of the legal system prevented any arrests. Then he murdered Phineas in front of 18 witnesses. The case was almost too close to home for Perry to even go with it, much less defend the very man who had committed it. In fact, originally Perry wanted nothing to do with the case. He wanted Julius get the straight death penalty, but persuasion from Johnny, Crinkle and surprisingly Heinz Doofenshrimtz, made him rethink his decision.

The only piece of evidence that Perry hadn't looked at was the pictures of the crime scene in the very back of the folder. He would need them in order to make his case valid, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Perry found himself shaking; he himself over and watched as the world became blurry. The voices started coming back. The couch started talking, begging Perry to lay down and rest, the clock went on and on about Wellington and the fireplace said nothing, the fire extinguished. Perry shook his head, slowly bringing the world back into focus; the voices quieted but were still present.

The platypus looked around the room and saw that he was now alone, Wellington having gone to do business in town and everyone else at their occupations. For the first time Perry wondered why so few people were in the boarding house, for there were many rooms available and no one to fill them. To clear his head Perry headed to the drawing room.

The drawing room was considerably brighter than all the other rooms in the house, for the bay window faced the morning sun and during the evening light flowed through the set of windows that ran with the dining table which flooded directly in the drawing room. A lone plant, a fichus, sat in the window and stretched towards the sun. Perry sat at the piano and began to play a piece that he had been working on ever since he had arrived. It was to be his magnum opus, a testament to everything that he had been through, how he got where he was. He was now working on the third movement.

The third movement originally was planned to be upbeat, with a fast tempo to contrast the slow and mellow tone of the second movement, the andante. Instead Perry decided that this movement was to be of the same tone, but it would have a hopeful outlook and approach, symbolizing, in Perry's mind at least, Heaven. He called this newly revised version, "Phineas." As he played, his thoughts drifted to the distant memories of Danville and the short time he had been with the Fletcher's in comparison to where he was.

He had lived in Danville for only three and a half years, before that time Perry wandered around aimlessly just barely surviving and finding solace in music and the friends he had made while traveling with a circus as part of an oddities act. In that oddities act Perry was "the Human Platypus" a combination of half human, half platypus which was in itself completely ridiculous. Amazingly the audience paid to see it; it was the only con that Perry ever attempted.

When it came to Phineas, Perry was close, closer than close actually, having developed an almost fatherly connection to the kid. Perry would do just about everything he could to make sure that Phineas and his siblings were provided for, for there were days when Lawrence and Linda, their parents, simply just didn't do their jobs as parents and focused on their own lives. Perry was the one who inspired Phineas and Ferb to start their building craze, giving them both endless support and even helping on some of the bigger projects but mostly just content to watch in spectacle. As far as Candace was concerned, Perry gave her relationship advice, something that he found ironic now, as well as moral support, going so far as to accompany her on her numerous dates with Jeremy. In more ways than one, Perry was more of a parent than Linda or Lawrence ever could be.

Perry reflected all of this into his piece. When that was done Perry focused on the dramatic effects of Phineas' death and the details with the case and put this in as well. Finally Perry turned his thoughts to Heaven and other worldly aspects and fit this in. By the time it was all said and done, the third movement was ten minutes long. Perry thought about trimming it down, but he couldn't bring himself to choose between which parts to keep and which parts to omit, so he left it as it was.

Perry looked out the window and noticed the neighborhood children playing stick ball and hopscotch on the sidewalk. He stood up from the piano, grabbed the music that he had just played and walked outside to greet the day in as well a manner as he could. When he walked past the parlor, he didn't hear a single word. Perry took this as a sign that everything was going to be okay from here on out, he knew that eventually the voices would come back and when they did Perry would greet them openly and with a smile. He would talk to them as if they were his friends and they would answer back. Then Perry would stop and take his medication and the world would be okay.


End file.
